Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 69 Taoist Ancient Treasure
With the Dao talisman by his side, the most suitable spells for Fang Shu to cultivate are those with low entry barriers but high difficulty in comprehension and considerable power!
His heart skipped a beat, and he became instantly interested in the sword technique in his hand.

But he remained calm and continued scrolling down.

After reading a few more pages, Fang Shu's interest in the "Red Serpent Bloodline Fire Blade Technique" grew even stronger.

This spell can use blood essence as threads to wrap around swords and blades, causing them to steam and burn as if on fire. Furthermore, after mastering it, one can even transform blood into a sword and control a red snake that moves with the sword, making it as powerful as a fourth-level tribulation spell!

The difficulty in cultivating it lies in the complexity and obscurity of the sword techniques and the sword manuals, as well as the certain requirements on the quality of the cultivator's essence and blood.

Those with superior essence and blood ignite a more intense and prolonged fire of blood.

Seeing these two points, Fang Shu compared them with the other spells he had seen today, and a thought instantly formed in his mind:

"This is it! Choosing too many options will only confuse you and make you anxious."

The main reason he came to the demon market today was to sell his valuables to raise enough money to buy precious medicine.

If you come across magic, it's fate to buy some to stock up, but being too stubborn about it will only make things worse.

While pondering, Fang Shu's hands continued to move rapidly, flipping through the booklet, trying to scan the subsequent contents one by one.

But when the stall owner saw this, he lightly flicked an iron ruler beside him, and the ruler landed with a clang on the spellbook, trembling as he pressed it down.

The other party said with a half-smile, "If you keep looking, you'll have to pay."

Upon seeing this, Fang Shu suddenly realized what was happening and stopped, quickly closing the spell so that nothing seemed amiss.

But in reality, he sighed inwardly.

Based on his observations throughout the demon market, the vendors selling various cultivation manuals did not take the secret texts lightly just because they were difficult to copy and memorize. On the contrary, they would hide them and only reveal the secret texts completely after the full price was paid.

Given the secret script, the cultivation steps and methods that are easy to remember will certainly not be fully revealed.

In this way, Fang Shu's ability to "remember everything he sees" becomes largely useless.

As for why the stall owners acted this way, it was because they were guarding against the ability to "remember everything they saw".

Whether it's genuine photographic memory, enhanced memory through drugs, or the use of magic to imprint the contents of spells, immortals have various methods to temporarily achieve the effect of photographic memory.

Therefore, the stall owners didn't want to sell a cultivation technique before they even received payment, only to have the details of the technique thoroughly discovered, including its flaws, making it impossible to sell at all.

As his thoughts drifted, Fang Shu thought to himself, "I've heard that every immortal sect has a scripture pavilion where one can freely read cultivation techniques and classic texts, as if they're afraid their disciples won't be able to learn them."

Perhaps only by joining a celestial sect can I fully explore the cultivation manuals and unleash the wonders of the Daoist talismans!

A sense of anticipation welled up inside him, but Fang Shu's face instead revealed hesitation and inner conflict.

He said to the stall owner, "It is indeed the fourth tribulation, and it is indeed something that can be cultivated at the Refining Essence stage, but the difficulty of this kind of cultivation, which requires subtle control of the flow of Qi and blood to form magical runes on the surface of swords, is truly great."

He planned to find fault with the price to prepare for his next round of haggling.

To everyone's surprise, the stall owner gave a cold smile, as if he had seen through him, and said:

"This technique is indeed difficult to learn, but what does that matter to me? No bargaining!"

Fang Shu carefully examined the other party for a few moments. Seeing that the other party looked serious, he cupped his hands in greeting, suppressed his attempts to bargain, and asked directly, "How much is it?"

The stall owner said in a low voice, "Five thousand!"

These words immediately calmed Fang Shu's mind.

He was prepared for the other party to ask for an exorbitant price, forcing him to pay a hefty sum. But to his surprise, the other party only asked for five thousand coins.

The price is not much different from that of a first-stage Qi Refining spell in the market, but the spell sold by the stall owner can reach the fourth-stage Qi Refining level in terms of power!
Seeing Fang Shu's hesitation, the stall owner said calmly:

"Don't complain about the price. The spells that sell well here have all been sold long ago, and now only these things are left."

"Buy it or don't, no after-sales service."

Seeing this, what else could Fang Shu say? He confirmed that the secret text in the sword technique was complete, and even if it wasn't, he could still learn something from it. So, he endured the pain on his face, but inwardly he was looking forward to buying the Fire Sword Technique.

After the money and goods were exchanged, Fang Shu picked up the book of swordsmanship and began to look through it on the spot.

After reading the contents of the booklet, he found that the training process of this technique was not bad, but the difficulty of comprehending it was quite high, especially the knife techniques, which were simply dazzling.

However, the corresponding texts are quite rudimentary, and at first glance, they look very much like a fragment.

The entire text conveys a general idea of ​​"emphasizing meaning over form," requiring practitioners to specifically comprehend the essence during the cultivation process.

However, Fang Shu glanced at the eighteen cryptic characters in the booklet that seemed to wriggle, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of finding a bargain.

In particular, with a slight tremor in his Taoist talisman, text appeared: "The 'Red Serpent Bloodline Fire Blade Technique' has been included... Analysis in progress... The secret text is complete... The method is brief and requires further deduction and completion..."

It is estimated to take 138 days. Observing the serpentine path will take slightly less time.

The Daoist talisman can indeed analyze this spell. Although it takes four or five months, which is quite a long time, being able to analyze it means that one can cultivate it.

Fang Shu, clutching the booklet, bowed to the stall owner and took his leave.

He strolled through the demon market, pondering whether he should sell the sword technique book at a stall or have a stall owner take it back. That way, he might be able to save most of the five thousand talisman coins.

With a thought in mind, he actually went to the demon market to inquire about it.

As a result, the stall owners were even more ruthless in their price reductions, all showing disdain and saying things like "tricky spells" and "there's only a general outline, how can anyone cultivate it?" The highest price they were willing to pay was only two thousand coins.

Seeing this, Fang Shu gave up the idea and stopped bothering with it.

Two thousand coins is a lot, but it's not too much for him now. On the contrary, with the sword manual on him, he can occasionally ponder the secret characters on it.

Because it was handwritten, the text has a rather fierce aura, and you might be able to glean something from it, or perhaps it will help you understand the Daoist scriptures.

After putting away the swordsmanship manual, Fang Shu glanced at the sky and realized that there was still more than an hour before the moon was high in the sky. For safety's sake, he planned to return to the town at dawn.

So he continued to wander around the demon market, but this time his goal was to find treasure medicine.

After leisurely inquiring with several stall owners, Fang Shu was disappointed to find that none of them allowed people to try the medicine. They would only let people peek at the medicine box at most, and wouldn't even let them touch it, let alone scrape off some powder.

This prevents Fang Shu from using the Taoist talisman to determine the authenticity and potential risks of any precious medicine.

Two hours passed, and he still hadn't harvested a single precious herb.

On the contrary, he gained a lot from the secret text.

He frequently wandered around the stalls of leatherworkers and tailors, collecting dozens of secret texts from those "tattered leather coats" and adding them to his Taoist talisman.

Because he would glance at the cobbler as he passed by, the cobbler and the others thought he wanted to steal their skills. But when they got closer, they all stared at him with hostility and revealed their true colors.

Fortunately, the Demon Market is managed by immortals. Rumor has it that the owner has powerful connections, so few immortals or demons dare to cause trouble in the Demon Market.

Fang Shu shrugged, only able to cover himself with his robes, and wandered around other parts of the demon market.

Just as he thought he wouldn't be able to buy the precious medicine tonight and was thinking of going back to the market to buy it, a corner of the demon market suddenly became lively.

"Open it! Goodness, it actually yielded a yam!"

"Tsk tsk, what a huge profit! They found a treasure trove in a waste pit, their value more than tenfold!"

In the noisy and bustling place, crowds of people and demons thronged together. Whether human or demon, they all wore expressions of excitement and whispered among themselves.

Fang Shu also stepped forward and discovered that the immortals and demons were "gambling on stones" in the demon market.

This job isn't particularly unusual; it's available in the market too. However, the process is only slightly better than drawing lots, since you end up with a pile of broken stones instead of a flimsy piece of paper.

Fang Shu had also heard his second uncle mention that any raw stones that might yield spirit stones or precious medicines were intercepted by others at the mine long ago.

This thing was all the rage ten years ago when my second uncle, Yu Le, first came to the market.

Later, it seems that because too many people were being scammed and everyone got tired of the routine, the show went through a period of decline.

Fang Shu squinted at it, thinking to himself, "Is the trend of gambling on jade stones about to start again?"

He also joined in the fun.

It turned out that the gambling on stones in the Demon Market was different from the gambling on stones in the Marketplace, which was "suitable for all ages" and "treats the poor and the rich equally". Every stone in the Demon Market was a "spiritual stone"!
Each stone, visible to the naked eye, possesses spiritual energy. Even the worst stones will at least have some spiritual energy on their surface. However, the entry barrier for stone gambling here is quite high. Only spiritual stones are accepted, and the minimum investment is at least the same weight in spiritual stones.

Fang Shu stepped forward to investigate further.

He joined in the fun for a while and discovered that the immortals and monsters were not only gambling on precious medicines, but also on an object called "ancient treasure".

Or rather, the latter is the real deal!
"Ancient treasure?" This was the first time Fang Shu had heard this term.

He subconsciously assumed that "ancient treasures" referred to relics of ancient immortals, and wondered why such treasures would be sealed inside spirit stones.

Suddenly, he heard the word "Taoist priest" from someone nearby.

An ancient treasure.

Its origins can be traced back 100,000 years, and it was left by beings known as "Taoists"!
(End of this chapter)